Abstract [en]

Dementia is a common diagnosis among elderly people in Sweden. The aim of this study was to examine how and why caregivers at a nursing home for people with dementia use clarifying communication in the daily care. This study has an ethnographic approach, and the data have been gathered by use of participant observation as a method enabled us to capture the caregiver’s actions during daily care for the people with dementia.

The results show that the caregivers used clarifying communication in different purposes. The purpose was to stop the persons with dementia from unwanted behaviour, to encourage the persons with dementia to desirable activities and to help the persons with dementia when they express disorientation. The caregivers acted clarifying by referring to the context of the situation and by referring to appropriate activities. The caregivers also acted clarifying by giving the persons with dementia clear instructions and clear information by the caregiver’s point of view when the people with dementia expressed disorientation. Knowledge from this study for implication in care in nursing homes for elderly people is to name the caregivers clarifying actions and knowledge about witch these clarifying actions are.